


Anthesis

by thecopperscales



Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-05
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2018-02-16 06:28:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2259429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecopperscales/pseuds/thecopperscales
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Renji can't bring himself to enter the office at 6th after a long night of drinking. Over-analysis and panic ensue. (rated mature for language, just in case)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anthesis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [taydev](https://archiveofourown.org/users/taydev/gifts).



> For my dear friend's - Taydev's - birthday. A tad bit belated, for which I apologise profusely. Happy reading.

 

Renji halts for a moment before entering the office. He's absolutely knackered, and the taste of alcohol still lingers in his mouth. On top of that, he probably stinks like sake, despite a very thorough quick shower in the wee morning hours. It's been a long night of incessant drinking, cups devilishly overflowing with sake, street-honed friendly banters and howls punctuating the whole ruckus every now and then. The scent of happiness and relief tinged the air. It still does, although going back to work cannot be listed among the most pleasant of things now. There is  a plethora of issues to attend to and Renji doesn't quite know how they're going to manage. Or how they've managed to go back in a more-or-less one piece, for that matter. The world has been saved once more, and the cost was more than they all bargained for. But now they're returning to their regular routines. The silent, mostly uneventful normal work.

It just so happened that Renji's birthday overlapped with most soldiers' recovery, thus making it a double celebration packed with big grins and occasionally teary-eyed confessions (a few of them of the romantic kind - Ikkaku and Yumichika spent the night coiled around each other like snakes, happy in their little world and as drunk as a lord). Renji was beside himself with joy that almost everyone that mattered managed to come, despite their wounds requiring constant nursing, and he made some attempts at playing the host - he even graced the table with some home-made foods and made sure there was enough alcohol to go by.

The party was announced as compulsory so captain Kuchiki appeared (not without some subtle coaxing from Rukia) in all his noble wariness, default disinterest mask in place. He probably felt as though he ought to be elsewhere. Rukia hugged her brother a tad awkwardly but once they settled down to talk, it seemed much less strained and lacking in its previous formality. They appeared genuinely happy and relaxed, if one could ever call Byakuya Kuchiki relaxed in any social situations that didn't, in their entirety, involve nobles. To have him there, among the "peasant-folk" as some rich people would probably address the gathering, filled Renji with so much delight he could hardly get that stupid grin off his face whenever their eyes met.

At some point they kissed, too.

Renji flushes at the memory, fisted hand poised to collide softly with the door's surface, contemplating the alluring option of running like hell and not showing up for a couple more days.

They did kiss, and it was Byakuya who initiated it. Soft moth's wings against one's face - that's what it felt like. It lingered, that kiss. Sake-laden breaths mingled and Renji was about to open his mouth, invite Byakuya in, let him establish dominance even there because, damn, that guy, even though rumoured to be an ice block in all aspects of his life, could make your knees buckle with a swipe of his tongue and the ghost of fingertips against your jaw... But they stopped. Actually, it was Renji who withdrew first upon realising the... mistake. It was a mistake, right?

It still reeks like one.

So now Renji's standing there, immobile, thoughts colliding with each other, that cut-throat of logic planting seeds of guilt and anxiety within him. The door appears bigger and much more formidable with each passing second. The air around him tenses, although no one's there. There might be some unseated officers running errands down other corridors, as the waft of their voices carries itself through silence, but that's it.

He's alone.

And his captain's right there, behind the door. Just one step further and he'll meet his demise. Or at least a cold stare and icy replies.

"Ah, damn!" Renji's fist punches the door a few times before he can stop himself.

Then he goes rigid. No reply. The captain wouldn't deign to reply to his door being banged at so viciously after all, but Renji latches onto the last threads of hope that maybe he's going hear that voice and see whether it's okay to enter or flee.

Not only is he prolonging his absence, surely getting himself in trouble, but he's growing impatient with himself too.

Why did Captain Kuchiki kiss him, anyway? Was it something he said? Or maybe a spur of a moment?  Did Renji somehow flashed him a green light or demanded the kiss? Unlikely. Everything was unlikely. Maybe he imagined everything in his head, compensating for something. That man is as unreadable as old Chinese to Renji sometimes, and contemplating the kiss is just making things worse.

_Oh, fuck this, I'm going in._

"Captain... !" he utters, commanding himself to use his usual loud voice, show that he has control over himself. But the office is empty save for a slice of strawberry-chocolate birthday cake Rukia got him yesterday. Unfinished. She dragged him to the party pretty fast, he merely got two bites of it. Renji's stomach gurgles unpleasantly and he finds himself staring long and hard at the cake.

A tentative "Captain?" escapes him when it becomes clear he's there on his own.

Slight, crisp breeze assaults his senses when he opens the window right behind his Captain's desk. It is peaceful outside and Renji attunes to the peacefulness all of a sudden upon seeing their training grounds. Still littered with debris. Still giving off that smell of death.

Everything's quiet.

Where's Kuchiki Byakuya?

He's hardly ever late... and there's no trace of his reiatsu here, either. Not a drop of it. It feels out of place.

So he turns on his heel and proceeds to the door, opens it and to his surprise there's Kuchiki Byakuya, sans kenseikan and prideful arrogance, no perfectly ironed haori, hungover as all hells and probably suffering from a monster of a headache, looking up at Renji with some childish indignation mixed with confusion and... is that guilt?

And then Byakuya's eyes wander off sideways.  He blushes. He purses his lips, tainting that elegant posture of his with the notion, huffing through his nose, visibly fighting with himself.

The Renji _snickers_ and Byakuya's getting more and more vexed, demanding water and for Renji to stop those unseemly giggles right this instant, in case he still desires to be considered a lieutenant in this division.

Their second kiss is nothing like the first one: it's Renji's lips on Byakuya's head when the nobleman's sipping ice-cold water and holding back the urge to vomit all over their office's floor. Still elegant, still stiff but loosening slightly. Although still refusing to look his lieutenant in the eye.

Yes, there are a lot of explanations to be had.

But for now they're going to relax, work a bit and tend to their hangovers in silence, maybe repressing some of it in the process. Maybe repressing everything that happened. Or maybe furthering it a bit.

Since Byakuya Kuchiki is unsurprisingly unpredictable in this case, all of the scenarios have a possibility of coming to fruition in a random order. The thought does not put Renji off - in fact, he's so fucking _happy_ he could basically start yodelling now because his dear captain has shown emotions and that's good, that's better than what he'd hoped for.

A bit terrifying, but welcome.

He finds himself to be completely at ease now.

Byakuya eventually raises his gaze to meet Renji's (hangover way too visible on his face but there is also relief and something akin to permission and Renji's happiness is now soaring up in the skies) and doesn't seem to mind when the latter smirks at him.

He doesn't mind Renji kissing him, either.

It feels right.

So damn right.

 


End file.
